Monday, January 07, 2008

Len's advice to me re: ww is that I need to build some boxes, so the people will better understand the out-of-the-box stuff we're already doing and will do in the future.

Out of the box thinking requires boxes that people can understand as a via negativa of our habits and practices.

He applauded the doxa series as a way to build a box that we could then venture out of with the people having their sense of safety intact. This, he said, is the major issue with experimentation...we forget that people need to feel safe in order to venture out.

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Len also challenged the idea of 'transforming culture.'

In his mind, the motivation to transform culture is at cross-purposes with new testament spirituality. Instead, we are to enter culture and live the gospel within it.

I mentioned that one reason american evangelicals may be so urgent to 'lead culture' with their creative capital is because their parents told them culture was bad and that they should flee from it. As a result, they have no ethic of entering culture, just a fantasy of being the best at culture - which, ultimately, is driven by an adgenda other than missional living.